Medicine’s Oxbridge equivalent now in Kochi

KOCHI: From this year onwards, thanks to a tie-up between London-based Royal College of Physicians and Aster Medcity here, Indian medical students can do the prestigious three-year post-graduate Core Medical Training in India itself which will make them eligible for super specialty in the UK.

The Kochi hospital becomes the second institution in the world, after one in Iceland, to offer the course outside Britain. The CMT programme includes work place-based assessments and MRCP (UK) examination.

“The curriculum and method of training would be exactly similar to that in the UK. Each student will have an electronic record of what they do and so at the end of the course they will know exactly how many procedures they have done, how many patients they have supervised,” said RCP international medical director Dr Ali Jawad.

The classes for the first batch will start from July 1, with 12 students selected from NEET’s PG merit list 2017 after interview to test their aptitude and clinical competencies.

“This will open avenues for the Indian doctors to work abroad and in India. The curriculum is provided by RCP and exams will also be conducted by them. The RCP faculty, along with hospital faculty, will be teaching the students here and lots of emphasis will be on communication,” said Aster Medcity CEO Dr Harish Pillai. The total cost of the three-year course is Rs 30 lakh.

Dr Jawad said that the emphasis will not just be on knowledge but also about a doctor’s behaviour that would be appraised not just by their seniors, but also nurses and social workers who work with them and the patients. “This will help the quality of service. There is no shortage of knowledge but introducing the right attitude is important,” he said.

However, not everyone is impressed. “It is just part of the commercial game. Foreign universities that were earlier rigid are now opening out as they are looking for money.

“Also I don’t know how much being exposed to their style of working, their teaching of clinical examination and examination of the patient will help our doctors here,” said Mumbai-based Dr PS Ramani, widely acknowledged as the father of neurospinal surgery in India.

There are regulatory issues too. As per Medical Council of India (MCI), the medical degrees obtained from US, UK and Canada is equal to the one obtained in India.

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